The Morning After: Wednesday, December 13th 2017

Dark and drunken platformer, Spate, due out on Steam in March

Spate is a drunken, emotional platformer due out for PC, Mac and Linux on March 19, via Steam and the game's website. Spate has evolved since we first saw it in March: The new screenshots show off a colorful, twisted world, while previously it looked plain twisted. The story remains dark, following a father as he deals with the death of his daughter by drinking the pain away – the more he drinks, the better he runs and jumps, but the world becomes more grotesque with each sip.

"The deeper into the journey he gets, the more surreal things become," Spate creator Eric Provan says. "Will he be able to ditch his drinking habit and finally face the emotions haunting him since his daughter's death? Or will he allow the drink to completely engulf him?"

Spate is in beta now, available in a pre-order bundle for $25. Pre-order the final game alone for $10. Provan migrated from the film industry, starting as an artist for Walt Disney Animation Studios, Sony Pictures Animation and the Jim Henson Creature Shop. In March, he told us how these skills translate to game development, and that his favorite aspect of Spate was the rain:

"I began thinking of all the movies that I love and what they have in common: Stalker, Dark City, Blade Runner, Big Trouble in Little China. It was rain! I began thinking of the feeling that I get when I sit at my window watching and listening to the rain come down. It's a special feeling, and it's one that I am determined to achieve with Spate."